On April 27th, 2011, the 8th graders all took a trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. We split into groups of ten and looked at art from different countries. We saw Islamic art, which we learned about in World Cultures earlier this year. We knew about these designs because of a project we did in art involving Islamic style. We saw Mesopotamian art, which consisted of ancient jewelry, old weapons, and miscellaneous sculptures. We also visited the Chinese art and the art of South Asia. In these sections we saw pieces ranging from artifacts from the Forbidden City to Buddhist and Hindu sculptures. After we had rekindled some of our knowledge about Mesopotamia, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and China, we were allowed to roam around the museum in small groups.
The highlight of the trip was going to the Ming garden. Workmen were brought in from China in order to build an authentic Chinese garden. The door leading into the garden is circular, and it is meant to only fit one person at a time. Inside the garden is a little waterfall surrounded by rocks that lead into a pool with fish. That is the only source of noise in the garden. This is because the garden is supposed to be peaceful and serene.
In our group in particular, Ms. Post gave each student a post-it with contrasts to find within the garden. Once we found an example, we sat down and shared them as a group. One contrast was light and dark. For this we said where the sun shines through the skylight and where the rocks formed a cave. We thought it was very interesting to see how the Chinese really liked to incorporate so many different contrasts.
The trip to the MET was very fascinating because we got the chance to actually see pieces of art that we learned about during the course of the year. We definitely learned a lot from this trip, and it was a fun diversion from our busy year.
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